I ended up in front of him, and reached out, putting my hand on his
forehead. I focused, trying to channel [The Stars Never Fade].
Nothing was happening, and I realized - I didn’t have an image. I
imagined Thukrur as a young, strapping gnoll, like one of the ones in the
ring. Not a kid, a bit into adulthood. Hopefully if I overshot, it wouldn’t be
too bad.
I felt the skill take hold, but it didn’t immediately go. No, it was like
pressure was building up inside of me, like water was steadily building up
against a dam, wanting to break free.
Darkness radiated from me, but it wasn’t an all-consuming dark. No, it
was simply a tapestry, a painting for all those watching to behold. It quickly
expanded, taking in everyone into its illusion. Quiet murmurs of concern
were quickly squashed.
What an illusion it was.
Tiny points of light glimmered in the darkness. White, yellow, red, blue,
and orange were the predominant colors. As more and more popped in, they
started to cluster together, forming the shapes of galaxies. Spiral, elliptical,
lenticular, barred spiral, irregular and everything else, all the different
shapes a galaxy could form, dozens, hundreds of them appearing around us.
They began to spin around us, a representation of the universe around us.
More celestial objects joined in. Comets drifted through the image, their
long tails shedding harmless motes of light on us all. An all-devouring
black hole, a white dwarf star, and fantastical creatures made out of stars
flew, ran, galloped, and swam through the cosmos.
The whole image spun, faster and faster, stars and planets trading with
gas clouds and asteroid belts through the imagery presented. Exploding
supernovas one moment, two planets of equal size colliding, stunning rings
around gas giants with hundreds of colors, the full spectrum of just, what,
exactly was out there was shown to us in a dizzying kaleidoscope of
images.
Gigantic whale-like creatures "swam" through space, nibbling at planets,
migrating between solar systems. They carried whole ecosystems on their
back, the universe supporting life on more than just planets.
Dark images, impossible shapes that we couldn’t look at, writhing knots
of space, images that our eyes refused to focus on, that were impossible for
our brain to process.